"This is the home of Major General D.H. Hill. For years he has been Professor in the Military Institute here. Mrs. Stonewall Jackson is here on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Gen. Hill. When Gen Hill was Professor in Washington College, Lexington, Va., his wife's sister paid his family a visit, and Gen. Stonewall, then Professor in the Military Institute, formed her acquaintance. Thus it happened that these two brave men are brothers-in-law. Their father-in-law is a Presbyterian clergyman, and lives near this place. By the way, both Gen. Jackson and Gen. Hill are elders in the Presbyterian church. Gen. Hill's influence here is unbounded."

Monday, July 22, 1912:

• "When the new automobile patrol recently purchased by the city which was badly damaged several days ago ... is put back into commission, it will be driven by experienced automobile men, according to a statement made Sunday night by Mayor Schwarz. ... 'I already have in mind one man, Mr. Ludlow, and am going to get another one. One of the men will run the machine during the day and the other during the night."

• "The funeral of S. Lee Hitchcock, who died Saturday afternoon shortly after 12 o'clock as a result of a bullet wound received at his residence in Oakdale at the hands of an unknown burglar, took place Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock at the late residence of the deceased on Bay avenue, and at the Oakdale Baptist church. ...

"Mr. Hitchcock was shot on early Friday morning by a man who is supposed to have been a [burglar]."

Thursday, July 22, 1937:

• "Alabama and Mississippi fishermen today had apparently 'gone to war' over the right to fish in the waters adjacent to Chandelier Island.

"This development came to light today when a delegation of 15 or 20 Bayou la Batre fishermen appealed to coast guard officials for 'protection' after they said they had been 'threatened' by Mississippi fishermen."

• "The Saenger Realty Corporation ... has purchased the old Lyric Theater, located at the southwest corner of Joachim and Conti Streets, according to a deed on file in probate court.

"The purchase was made from Henry C. Stearns, Chicago real estate investor, and his wife, Basca Stearns, who last week bought the property from C.c. Inge and wife and the Merchants National Bank, as trustees for the first mortgage bondholders. The record revealed the sale was consummated for a consideration of $50,000."

• "Exhibitions in tumbling, hand-balancing and other acts were given [at the meeting of the Kiwanis Club Wednesday at the Mobile Country Club] by Ben Merrill, physical director of the Y.M.C.A., and his boys."

• "Historians have a wide choice of the materials they put into print but only within recent years has anyone chosen to shed any light on Mobile as a gambling town.

"It seems, however, that Mobile, a hundred years or so ago -- was a rootin'-- tootin' spot where you could get action with cards or dice almost anytime you could afford it.

"This all has been brought to light in a book published in 1960 called 'Play the Devil, a History of Gambling in the United states from 1492 to 1950.' The author, Henry Chafetz, sees fit to devote some eight pages or so to Mobile."